Robert Ambrogi

For me, CBS News was long the undisputed leader in principled and professional reporting. I can’t help but see Dan Rather’s departure as an ominous portent for the future of CBS News and all broadcast news, especially given the pop-culture celebrity who soon will take his former anchor seat.…

This week’s edition of the legal-affairs podcast Coast to Coast explores the many complex issues involved in the patent litigation between Tivo and Echostar, and in particular the Federal Circuit’s recent order, In re EchoStar Communications, involving attorney-client privilege and the discoverability of attorney work product in patent litigation. Joining my cohost…

In an experiment in newsroom “transparency,” The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Wash., yesterday began webcasting its news meetings. Meetings are streamed live for anyone to watch at 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Pacific time.

[Hat tip to Al’s Morning Meeting.]…

Google today launched Google U.S. Government Search, a tool designed to make it easier to find government information and keep up to date on government news. Although called “U.S. Government Search,” it searches many state and local government sites as well. As its FAQ says:

“The Google U.S. Government Search index includes U.S.

Shakespeare, now searchable, courtesy Google.…

From the folks who brought you Wikipedia comes Wiktionary, a free, collaboratively produced multilingual dictionary. It includes etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations. As of this writing, it has more than 150,000 entries.…

Would that they did, but not every news page on the Web has an RSS feed. If you want to be able to use your RSS reader to follow a feedless page, try FeedYes.com. Type in the URL of the page, and it creates an RSS feed for the page.

FeedYes claims to…

Maryland’s highest court is studying whether to broadcast its oral arguments online or through a cable outlet, something that would bring Maryland in line with appeals courts in 21 states that offer some recorded coverage, the Baltimore Sun reports. The idea remains in its early stages, Sally W. Rankin, spokeswoman for Maryland’s judiciary, said.…

The courtroom is a very serious place, but once in a while, it becomes a theater for human comedy as the search for justice unfolds. On this week’s Coast to Coast legal-affairs podcast, you’ll hear the classic humor of real-life courtroom stories from special guest, Judge Jerry Buchmeyer, a senior U.S. District Court…

An op-ed I wrote on behalf of the Massachuetts Newspaper Publishers Association calling for open meeting reform appears in today’s Boston Herald: No Democracy in the Dark.…

A federal judge in Orlando, frustrated by lawyers’ inability to resolve discovery matters, has ordered them to engage in what he called “a new form of alternative dispute resolution,” a game of rock, paper, scissors. The order, issued yesterday by U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell, directs the parties to meet for the game June 30…

Microsoft has scrapped plans to enable Office 2007 documents to be saved in Adobe’s proprietary PDF format, according to a report in eChannelLine. Microsoft likely made the move to avoid delay in the launch of Office 2007 if Adobe took Microsoft to court, the report says.

While this may be good news for Adobe,…